/////code//ecologies//////: October 2017

10/31/2017

My Current Thoughts on Digital Technologies_shaoranz

In this letter, I would like to focus on two questions: how digital technologies will shape the future of architecture beyond form finding? What kind of adjustments we may need to make to tackle with the new disruptions in the digital revolution?

We are now seeing a moment that digital revolution is changing every domain of urban lives. The way buildings and urban spaces are designed, built up, lived in and even thought about is now part physical and part digital. Innovations like Contiki and Thingsquare enable us to connect almost every component in a building to the internet and make our built environment much smarter than ever before. Architectural standards like WELL Building Standards has set up to address new opportunities and challenges in the digital revolution. New mode of urban businesses and jobs which were simply not exist few years ago are also created, such as Mobike and urban computing scientists.

Digital technologies are also a powerful tool for architects to improve the way to communicate useful information to users(habitant). With digital technologies as data mining and HCI, Architects will now know their users better: not only who will use the buildings but also how they want to use it and how they feel about using it. Because of the sensing networks and IOT, personal health and genetic tests data will also be connected to the built environment, thus buildings are able to adjust to the best mode for enhancing wellness of users. Additionally, emotion components and interaction sectors will be added in to buildings, which will humanize the environments and build up a new type of social networks in both physical and digital sides.

In addition, digital technologies offer new opportunities to citizens to engage in future democracy agenda. Architects may consider engaging collaboration with a network of non-designers in design process for public projects in the future. By sharing their proposed building plan and 3D models with citizens, architects will get immediate and live feedback from their users. It will enable the public, private and community sectors to contribute ideas, comments and proposals in real time.

However, as Henning Meyer from London School of Economics and Political Science mentions, in the digital revolution, we are undoubtedly faced with large-scale disruptions in many areas that require adjustments. People (include architects) need to be educated, or they might lose their jobs, their voice and their rights. For example, when I was working on a smart parking project last year, the impact of the digital technologies on the employment is obvious: Instead of ten people, we only need one person to do the same thing now, and 9 of 10 of the current employees might be laid off. When architectures and urban environment become smarter, low-skill workers may lose their jobs.

I couldn't agree more with what Vicente Guallart, chief architect of Barcelona, said, that every time we have economic and cultural progress we should visualize this in the public space. Unfortunately, in most cases, the progress is very private and capitalistic. Expertise and resource always goes to big mansions. While high income group are enjoying the convenience brought by digital technologies, low income group are suffering from the broader gap between experts and non-experts. I believe digital technologies are much more powerful than we thought. By changing the physical environment, we can transform issues like social inequality, urban violence and losing sense of community. I am interested in the idea of integrating Interaction design and user research into architecture. What I would like to explore with digital technologies are not new patterns and new forms, but their impacts on human emotion, communication behavior, public health, security and equality.

Nursery_ Jun Xu

Thinking about Digital Technology and Fabrication_Jun Xu

Digital Technology and Fabrication.

Digital technology has changed the traditional methods of building performance and means to change the architect's understanding of space and form, also to achieve the integration with the effects of design and manufacture.

I think that digital technology in architecture is developing is fast. First, in my opinion, that digital technology is like a threshold transfer the mathematic algorithm to visualization world. I think computational vary which refers to the establishment of a specific relationship between multiple elements. And the combination of digital technology and fractal theory provides a powerful tool for architects to create complex rhythmic beauty with established the architectural form. With the development of digital technology, they can build a complex fractal geometry with generative the algorithm. As long as the program changes the initial state and parameters, the architect can get a variety of rich modeling.

Second is about digital fabrication, the design, and manufacturing process of efficiency and accuracy has worked improved before. The architect could use variables and parameters to design and explore the texture and behaviors of nature, to generate the ideal place space and shapes in the design process. The robotic fabrication and construction now are highly involved in the architectural realm. I think that robot involvement in construction is not just a change in human labor. But should be seen as a "transitional relationship" from the design stage to the construction phase. And this is also the reaction or reality of the visualize imagination.

10/30/2017

MX--"Love Letter" to DT

Firstly, digital technology is one of the areas in architectural design that I believe still have a lot of potentials, which is also the reason why I choose this program. There are many topics about how digital technology will change the architecture field, and most of them are still developing. In terms of architecture design, BIM, Rhino, GH and kinds of modeling software bring many new ideas and generating the new form. In terms of architecture presenting, VR, MR, AR shows its ability but it is still at early stage. In terms of construction, digital fabrication method allows more and more customized design to come true within the budget. It is the era that the architecture field is developing so fast and shifting so fast. Which create many exciting opportunities for me to explore what the future of architecture will be.

Secondly, the market for digital technology is raising a lot since last century. Not only because of the development of computer industry and software but also the cost of labor is raising. The demand for reducing the labor cost is increasing from the developer. But for now, digital design and digital fabrication are still like two different disciplines. The designer has a lot of good ideas but does not understand fabrication, while the engineer knows fabrication does not understand design. From my experience in the previous college, a lot of design does not consider fabrication at all, which means that some of the good projects will go to the dead end eventually. The internship experience I had in China is opposite to my previous college. Most of my teammates are very practical architects, and afraid of exploring new technology. The construction contractor also unwilling to test new technology due to the cost. But it is the area that may lead to next generation of the architectural field. Thus, I choose the digital technology master program here to explore the possibilities in future.

10/27/2017

A Letter to the Digital Era

VR,AR,MR, AI, they are all now popular trends on all media. What digital brings to
architecture area, for me , are digital ways to produce and present architecture. If we ask
ourselves, what has changed in architecture field between the last 50 years, the biggest
change I would say is the way that people now are more and more used in using computer as a production method.

However, most of the changes happened only as the change of the tool. The idea of
architecture and the the idea behind a digital era of architecture has not changed at all. 50
years ago, architects use pen and ruler to draw the architecture graphs line by line and now
there are still many architects draw the architecture graphs line by line not using pen but
AutoCAD or Rhinos. The technology development in many other field doesn’t change the way how we think about architecture but only provide us with the new tools to repeat the way which we are used to think and work in architecture field.

Thus, for me, a real digital era for architecture is an era that architecture field begins to
embrace the changes in other fields and begin to change itself to accustom to the world’s
change. Like CNC and 3D printer, they enable us to shape a more complex and dynamic
forms, opening up opportunities for a much cheaper and quicker method for constructions like prefabrication, architects should be aware of these changes and response to these by their designs not only regarding these technologies as a modeling tool. Another example is about the rendering. With the rapid development of GPU, the rendering power of the computer can now easily produces photo quality rendering images and even VR environment, but most of the works done by architects don’ t response to these changes. We are still comfortable with the traditional graph presentations, ignoring the changes which will improve the way we communicate with the public and other specialists.

Architecture is an ancient industry, but it can be always young. Like parametric design or
using other fields theories to produce architecture design, they all benefits architecture to
archive a more diverse and flexible condition to explore the spatial problems. For me, the
digital era of architecture lies in the power of fabrication, of the algorithms and of the
computation ability. Architects should be free from the house keeping errands by the help of
the computer and they should also be free to explore the spatial design with the help of
computer.

10/26/2017

Designer In Digital Era_Jaemoon Rhee

In a simple formula, Knowledge in design is depth of understanding times area of possibility field. Possibility field is a palette of possible tools and materials in individuals’ mind while the depth of understanding literally indicates level of understanding on things on the palette or the confidence to use them. The main reason for me to apply for MS_DT was to expand my palette while have hands-on understandings to assure myself on utilizing things on my palette. I believe that is the best way to advance as a designer.

In past days, architects seemed to believe the depth in understanding on tools such as materials, representation, and construction methods, is more effective way to advance the design. With more realistic reasons, expansion in palette only happened in few experimental projects, and in many cases, architects returned to convention. Meanwhile, leaders of architects like Frei Otto, Peter Zumthor, Frank Gehry, and Zaha Hadid, pushed the boundaries on understanding to open up new potentials.

With the rapid advancement in technology, only within recent few years, architects at the edge seem to find a way to utilize their expanded palettes in real projects. Tools like Rhinoceros and grasshopper3d provide interface for architects to use developed mathematical and computational solutions from other industries. CAD, CAM and robotic fabrication allow us to adapt new methods of making from other industries. With more open sourced materials, it seems about right time to share our deepened knowledge with other industries with less cost and higher efficiency in transition.

Collaboration in different field inevitably requires an arbiter role. Designers are the trained people to collect and survey data, then, abstract to shape core value and create future from it. Thus, in many collaboration work, designers manage the flow of knowledge. Hence, both the expansion in palette and depth of understanding are the core values for designer. Now seems the best time to achieve stiff increase in knowledge.

In a way, this seems to be the role, expected to perform better by future A.I. A.I will store a lot more data in short time then a regular designer. It will have precisely calibrated algorithm to find the core value. Then it will create a design that can perform better functionally and emotionally from collected big data. It will not have any problem with managing collaboration in different field, since it will understand all the necessary tools it needs. While a human being purely depends on one’s personality and experience in one’s lifetime for creation, A.I. will be equivalent to infinite number of personality and unlimited experience. Within 50 years at the maximum, we will see an ultimate solution of design by A.I that will perform perfect in general criteria.

Nonetheless, A.I. will not be able to replace all the designers. The unbiased data collection, and best performing in general criteria do not always mean the best design for one. It will be more popular, but there will be people seeking for uniqueness. The biased, and immature, compare to the amount of collected lifetime experience to A.I, experience and personally will create a unique solution that can match with a single person. Some people say A.I will even be better on this situation, too because it can collect the preference of the client and create the best for that. Nevertheless, the uniqueness will be the competitive value for a human designer. We just need to be ready with enough colors on our palette and understanding on how to mix and use them.

10/25/2017

"Love Letter" to Digital Technologies_Elizabeth Feltz

In Peter Eisenman’s “Visions Unfolding: Architecture in the Age of Electronic Media,” he explains a paradigm shift from mechanical to electrical processes and how it affects our perception of space and materiality. I interpreted his definition of the mechanical paradigm as a vision of architecture overcoming various forces of nature, making humans feel like they are able to control natural phenomena. By contrast, this “electronic paradigm” seems to consider the effects of media and simulation, getting rid of the ideas of vertical/horizontal or interior/exterior in appearance. It considers that architecture may be able to react to the human as we react to it.

The new tools used to alter appearance also allowed designers to produce variation very quickly and discover forms and concepts that would not be possible by hand. Now, over twenty years after Eisenman’s article was published, these toolsets are finally becoming the norm. However, there seems to be more and more questions about defining reality with all of the different forms of electronic simulation and how architecture can keep up. I am very curious to learn more about how we will balance the idea of a “fully customizable environment” with a more choreographed architectural design. With the increased desire for customization and collaboration in every aspect of our lives, will it be counterproductive in architectural design? I am interested in the challenge of figuring out what role the architect plays as technology develops and people are able to customize their lives more and more, potentially creating a separate reality for themselves. I am also interested in how we will define reality in the next few decades, no longer associating architecture with only physical reality.

During my undergraduate studies at The University of Cincinnati, in one of the vertical studios, we created a project that predicted how mixed-reality technology would be used in the future as well as the economic and social consequences that would arise. We also discussed cyberspace and how society interpreted that idea decades ago, comparing it to newer mixed-reality technology headed our way. The final project was displayed through Oculus Rift so we could also gain experience using the animation technology. Overall, the conclusion of the studio was that we need to find ways to adapt architecture to these alternate realities or it may become obsolete. After taking great interest in this topic, I decided to continue my studies in the graduate program at The University of Michigan in hopes of finding ways to design for future technologies and the social and economic changes that will accompany them.

Source:

Eisenman, Peter. "Visions Unfolding: Architecture in the Age of Electronic Media." Architectural Design, 1992. Accessed October 24, 2017.

RahulAttraya_DigitalEraEssay

One of the highly deliberated topics in today’s age of the digital is ‘Machine Learning.' We are continuously discussing ways for our computers to solve issues on their own, not with the goal of replacing humans from the workforce, but perhaps to augment a direct human-computer interaction rather than a linear mode of information transfer that we have been used to since the first introduction of computers. While our computers can generate simulations that remotely would not be possible for a human to do on his or her own, but a computer struggles to differentiate between a Maple tree and a Sycamore (or at least it used to till the recent advancements in computer recognition and learning systems).

These issues arise not due to the tendency of computers to only process information it knows or is fed, but because of the nature of the interaction between the computer and the natural environment. The ‘real’ world is at times if not always is unpredictable therefore it becomes a cumbersome process for us to teach the computers to recognize minute details in varying circumstances. However, with the advent of machine learning, we can now let the machines learn on their own based on past experiences or examples and build their library to generate solutions to specific or different problems. These advancements raise questions of how machine learning could be used in the field design or architecture: Will our computers be generating designs of our houses for us? How does it know what we might or might not like in our house? How does it predict the color/style we want our home to be? While it might seem that machine learning has become ubiquitous at sorting our pictures on our phone based on their type, we might still be quite the ways away from the day a computer can predict human emotions or individual sense of aesthetic appreciation to design our houses for us.

Perhaps one of the most relevant applications of Machine Learning in the recent times has been associated with Virtual Reality (VR) as well as Augmented Reality (AR) and its ability to generate realistic adaptions of fictitious possibilities. Game designers have been using this technology to immerse the user in a virtually realistic environment while introducing them to newer experiences. Similarly, software companies such as Snapchat or Instagram has allowed us to transform the cameras on our phones to augment “virtual” dinosaurs on our screen. Could this open up room for architects to use similar technologies to display a project to the client before the actual construction? While we already see these changes happening, it might be interesting to consider the application beta versions of our designs through VR/AR being negotiated with clients before delivering the final constructed project like we have been used to for centuries. Does this put additional pressure on the architect to be attentive towards every detail from the very early stages of the project to avoid denunciations from the client?

Fatima Al Zaabi_ This is not a love letter

We are now noticing a new shift towards exploring different design methodologies and fabrication utilizing emergent digital technologies. Many designers in the field of architecture are pursuing this new exploration, as they believe it will produce new design typologies and construction methods through advanced computer-aided design and manufacturing technologies. We no longer want to be confined by the traditional design and construction processes because they seem obsolete to the digital era we live in when compared to other industries like automotive and aerospace that have embraced these technologies.

The world is now on the brink of entering the era of 3d-printed buildings and its promise to turn complicated and intricate designs into reality. Full-scale building structures are foreseeable as many designers are utilizing the rapid prototyping technique of 3d printing to construct large-scale building components or structures that cannot be built by hand or require a skilled costly laborer to fabricate it. Multiple projects around the world are now constructing large-scale buildings solely fabricated through digital technologies.

The question of pushing the boundaries of conventional architecture design by utilizing advanced design tools and fabrication methods becomes the driving notion of my interest. Therefore, my main focus is researching existing methods of construction or material crafts essentially found locally in the UAE & MENA region and re-appropriating them through advanced design tools and fabrication techniques to create complex singular designs and customizable multiples that are unique to the region. I believe it is important to adhere to our cultural and physical contexts because it provides responsiveness and incorporation to our environment. It also pushes the idea of creating an architectural identity to the environment we live in rather than making designs that lack contextual relevance and can be placed anywhere in the world.

I’m interested in creating projects that provide a crude answer towards new methods of design and construction through the utilization of computation and digital fabrication methods.I want my research to push the audience from different segments whether academic, professional or individuals to question the state of architecture fabrication methods and material manipulation. It is important to be able to deliver a project that opens the dialogue of new possibilities just as 3D printing technologies are trying to push the architecture industry. However, the design methods explored will address a contextual response rather than solely focusing of automation of design and construction, which was the demise of the traditional architecture processes due to the lack of contextual responses. “To be innovative, architects—and works of architecture themselves—must become more responsive to their users and environments. In other words, they must incorporate feedback from their physical and cultural contexts rather than relying solely on conventional analytical or internal processes of development … from design to construction” Ali Rahim, architect (Celanto, “Innovate or Perish”).

Reference:

Celanto, David. “Innovate or Perish: New Technologies and Architecture’s Future.” Harvard Design Magazine, No. 26, 2007,www.harvarddesignmagazine.org/issues/26/innovate-or-perish-new-technologies-and-architectures-future.